1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a content information sales management method and distribution management method.
2. Description of the Related Art
Music is sold through the Internet. More specifically, when the user connects a personal computer to a music selling website and performs a predetermined procedure for purchasing a song, the song data (digital audio data that can be reproduced as a song) for the purchased song is downloaded to the personal computer. The downloaded song data can be reproduced as a song. The song data obtained in this manner can be transferred to a reproduce terminal device for reproduction purposes.
A general method for connecting the personal computer to a music selling website is to directly enter the URL (Uniform Resource Locator) for the music selling website into the personal computer and jump to the music selling website. However, when a banner advertisement page introducing a song or an affiliate's page is linked to the music selling website, clicking such a link causes a jump to the music selling website. When a music selling website is connected in this manner, and particularly when a song is purchased after making such a connection, the supplier of the banner advertisement page or the affiliate's page will be rewarded.
Therefore, the music selling system based on banner advertisements or affiliates is beneficial to both music sellers and page suppliers. Another system is also projected for recommending and selling song data through a P2P (Peer to Peer) or ad-hoc network. Such system is disclosed, for example, in Japanese Patent Laid-open No. 2003-187091, Japanese Patent Laid-open No. 2003-288530, and Japanese Patent Publication No. 2002-63495.